BOOM, BABY, BOOM

I have a Monday morning routine that is similar to most. Snooze the alarm 3 or 4 times, jump out of bed, check my phone/shower/shave/eat/brush/etc… During which I check my work e-mail to get a head start on the day. Working in digital media, I always need to be connected even on the weekends so there usually is not much that I have not already seen in terms of new content and relevant information, but this Monday was different.
18, count them, 18 new Google alerts on Men’s Grooming, 12 hits on men’s cosmetics, and about 20 other duplicate alerts catching news that is picked up by many of the different media outlets around the world; ALL talking about the Men’s Health and Beauty industry and its various segments. This abundance of discussion can be explained by a simple phenomenon.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times ran a front page feature on this very industry and like the popular kid at school with the newest fashion, the masses wanted to get their own signature piece of the popular pie. 100s of major and minor media outlets across the nation cut and pasted bits and pieces of this story and ran their own version in their various publications. Even more impressive is the amount of different articles that have come out in the past week alone highlighting different reasons as to why this is a burgeoning market. From Time Magazine to major industry blogs, everyone wants to get in on this discussion and we don’t blame them. The numbers do not lie, the growth is REAL! Boom, baby, BOOM!
The numbers speak for themselves:

$3.2 Billion – The projected sales of the men’s toiletries market in 2016 up from $2.2 billion in 2006 and $2.6 billion in 2012 according to the LA Times

$217 Millon – The size of the Men’s Skincare market compared to $40.9 million in 1997 according Time’s Magazine.

420% – The sales growth of men’s grooming products in the past 2 years according to Hautelook

76% – The increase in Men purchasing Women’s grooming products in the past 2 years according to Hautelook

37%, 37% & 79% – The % amount rise of ad pages in that time period in publications such as GQ, Men’s Health and Details magazines respectively.

Rather than bore you with more numbers, suffice it to say that you get the point. This market is alive and flourishing and the point we are trying to instill in you is that it is that it is okay to talk about grooming and cosmetics. It is okay to buy your own products rather than use your girlfriends. We are in the Mansome era; it is not just OKAY, it is ENCOURAGED.